B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S S C I E N C E & P H I L O S O P H Y 2 0 2 3 23 FIRST PUBLICATION OF JOULE’S KEY WORK “ON THE MECHANICAL EQUIVALENT OF HEAT,” 1850, BOUND WITH FOUR OTHER PAPERS ON THERMAL EFFECTS AND MAGNETIC INDUCTION 23. JOULE, James Prescott. Five Scientific Papers: On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat. BOUND WITH: On the Air-Engine. BOUND WITH: THOMSON, William and JOULE, J.P. On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion. BOUND WITH: JOULE, J.P. and THOMSON, W. On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion, Part II. BOUND WITH: Introductory Research on the Induction of Magnetism by Electrical Currents. London: Philosophical Transactions, 1849-55. Quarto, modern marbled paper wrappers, custom clamshell box. $3800 First appearances of five important scientific papers by Joule—including his 1850 “On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat”—each extracted from the journal Philosophical Transactions where they originally appeared and bound together, complete with three engraved plates, one folding. Joule, at only 22 years of age, established one of the most fundamental laws of electricity, a law that would later come to be known as Joule’s law. He “demonstrated that the conversion of heat into force, and vice versa, takes place at a fixed rate. This discovery led to two conclusions: first, that heat is a form of energy; and second, that within a given system, the sum total of energy is both constant and convertible. Joule’s work, along with that of Mayer and Helmholtz, was fundamental to the establishment of the principle of conservation of energy” (Norman 1179). At first Joule’s work had a hard time finding wider acceptance, until it was taken up by the 22-year-old scientist William Thomson, the co-author with Joule on two of the papers in this collection. Joule’s pioneering work “On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat” was published in Philosophical Transactions in 1850, the same year Joule was elected to the Royal Society. The paper contains “his most precise value of the mechanical equivalent of heat, including the famous paddle-wheel experiment” (Morris, Great Experiments in Physics, 169). “William Thomson’s attention focused on Joule’s claim to have shown the conversion of mechanical effect into heat in fluid friction. Before long, Thomson had devised a variant of Joule’s paddle-wheel apparatus and was even considering the use of a steam engine to demonstrate in dramatic fashion the heating effects of fluid friction. For his part, Joule began work in the cellar of the brewery on a fresh set of results which Faraday communicated to the Royal Society on 21 June 1849.… Eager for the reform of British physical science, William Thomson and a growing network of associates (including Macquorn Rankine, James Thomson, James Clerk Maxwell, and Peter Guthrie Tait) made Joule’s results the foundation for the new doctrine of conservation of energy from the early 1850s” (ODNB). This collection includes “On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion,” a two-part paper co-authored with William Thomson, with Part I appearing in 1853 and Part II in 1854—both parts present here. “Altogether Joule and Thomson published at least ten papers on their joint experimental researches up to the early 1860s” (ODNB). This collection also includes Joule’s 1851 paper “On the Air-Engine,” and his 1855 paper “Introductory Research on the Induction of Magnetism by Electrical Currents.” All papers excerpted from Philosophical Transactions where they originally appeared; with the original engraved illustrations published with the papers. Fine condition.
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